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1、奇闻异事非洲人种地
奇闻异事非洲人种地
今日精读The Economist《经济学人》2020年4月25-5月1日第43页文章。疫情之下，富裕国把牛奶倒掉，贫穷国全民种豆。之前精读过一篇关于贫穷国举步维艰的报道，这次目光转向非洲，蝗灾还未消散，新冠又袭，确实是a crisis within a crisis。
另外，调整下精读模式，挑选我认为值得讲解的段落赏析，并且附上原文，其他段落尽量概括下段落大意，供阅读了整篇的粉丝参考。文章过长的分2次精读。
标题The race to feed Africa已经明示时间不等人，非洲百姓嗷嗷待哺，这次是要跟时间赛跑了。
副标题这句话有两个地方值得留意。一是strain和break的区别，strain means to try to make sth do more than it is able to do 过度使用；使不堪承受。而break单从我们熟悉的意思就能知道程度更严重。break means to destroy sth or make sb/sth weaker; to become weak or be destroyed （被）摧毁，削弱。二是need的使用，在美国高考SAT中我记得很清楚有道题专门考察了情态动词的用法，其中正确答案就是用need，也是那道题让我重新去审视can, must和need等情态动词的内在含义。这句说新冠现在正（is straining）给非洲的食品体系带来压力，但是need not break them，字面意思是不需要去摧毁整个体系，潜在的含义是人类，主要是非洲各国，是可以去采取措施，避免食品体系被摧毁。
“Once the market was closed, all my knowledge was over,” sighs Brian Kayongo, a spare-parts trader from Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Until the covid-19 lockdown he spent most of his time in the city. He knew about spark plugs, not seeds. But now he is planting maize and beans on a patch of land he has rented in a nearby village. Everybody there is digging, he says. Even the young people who turned up their noses at farming have “surrendered” to the tyranny of the hoe.
首段从一位商贩的感叹引入，算是典型的报道开头。以前他可以只懂火花塞，毕竟是卖零部件的。但是现在他也加入了种植大军。
最后一句出现的短语turn up one's nose at sth. 从上文，尤其是上一句"每个人都在挖地"以及该短语对应的主语young people能猜出是"对...嗤之以鼻"的意思。后面用hoe锄头代指种地，还用tyranny暴政来夸张地形容种地，配上年轻人不想挨饿不得不扛起锄头的画面，也是有些喜感。
第2段提及联合国世界粮食署发出警告，今年严重挨饿人数可能翻倍。世界银行预测撒哈拉以南非洲的农业产量会下降3-7%，而食品进口下降13-25%。这一段有个句型值得学习：it is/will be sth./sb. that is/are mainly to blame. 某事或某人是罪魁祸首/应付主要责任。
Yet there is plenty of food in the world. If the pandemic creates hunger, it will be policy failures, not crop failures, that are mainly to blame.
然而世界粮食储备丰富。如果大流行病导致饥荒，终究该归咎于政策不良，而非收成不佳。
The nightmare scenario would be a repeat of the food crisis in 2007-08, when the world’s governments hoarded staple grains, making prices soar. Africa imports more than a quarter of its cereals. Much of the rice that Ghana gobbles up comes from Vietnam—which has restricted exports. Shiploads of Indian rice bound for Senegal and Benin have been stranded in gridlocked ports. In normal times several west African countries spend more than half their export earnings buying food. As the prices of their own commodities fall and their currencies weaken, they will have even less purchasing power than before.
第3段通过描述1/4谷物靠进口的非洲，现如今从越南和印度等国都受阻，最坏的情况是07-08年粮食危机重演。这段出现好几个短语值得学习：
the nightmare scenario 最坏的情形/一场噩梦/噩梦般的场景hoard staple grains 屯主食gobble up sth. 大口吃/狼吞虎咽restrict exports 限制出口be bound for 正前往某地purchasing power 购买力第4段作者又带着我们看向了积极的一面：世界食品体系现在面临的情况跟07-08年不尽相同。从出口限制到石油价格再到粮食储备，都不一样。
第5段又转向消极的一面：非洲受难的普通百姓，每户家用开销一半都花在了食品上（the average household allocates half its expenditure to food.）而经济急剧下滑以及封城导致大部分工人失业，日均收入掉到1.9美元。而第6段提到数国政府的救民措施：分发食物和调控价格。只不过，乱涨价以及领救助品时发生踩踏事件。有意思的是第6段最后一句，作者说还不如直接发钱（It would be simpler just to give cash, which can be sent to people on their mobile phones.），我在想如果真这样做有些人没手机或者手机都不会绑卡咋办，当然还有想作秀的估计弄不出大场面了，把发了多少钱公示出来总感觉仪式感不足啊。另外从这句话lockdowns close the informal businesses in which most workers hustle. 了解到一个概念informal business不正规的生意 (Many firms in developing countries are informal, that is they operate without registering with the government.)。没有资质就开公司，除了这些人胆大，政府监管还要加强。
第7段进一步提出政府应该要做的还有保持食品流通。非洲只有1/5的食品是自产自消，其他食品都通过成百上千万的不正规商贩流出去(trickle out through millions of informal traders.)。很多人都只能算半个农民，通过做生意或者打零工多挣点钱（top up their earnings）,所以几乎一半的食物可能都要购买。第8段指出目前紧急推出的封锁阻碍了食物的流通，政府将食品定为重要物资，但是公安部队却狠抓街头小贩。
这两段有2处地方的用词非常精妙。一是形容没有自消的食品通过卡车运走、处理后在批发市场上出现，最终通过成百上千万的不正规商贩流出去，用到的词是trickle out。
The rest moves down long supply chains, via lorries, processors and wholesale markets, before trickling out through millions of informal traders.
When a liquid trickles, or when you trickle it, it flows slowly in a thin stream. 使细流; 细流。从这个释义让我瞬间想到批发市场中，各种骑着摩托、开着三轮车或面包车的小商小贩，将一袋袋大蒜、土豆和芹菜等拖走。市场上每天人来人往，确实像极了一条条川流不息的涓流。
二是形容封锁阻碍了食物的流通，用到的词是capillary。
Hastily devised lockdowns are clogging up this system’s capillaries.
Capillaries are tiny blood vessels in your body. 微血管。跟刚刚的trickle联系起来，会发现作者其实都是采用了暗喻，可以说是把流通的食品比作是流动的水或血液，而食品体系就是四通八达的河流或是血管。
To be continued.
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